The phone was ringing. But it was the middle of the night. Must be an emergency. I rolled out of bed to answer it. It was someone in an agitated state for sure. When he right away asked me what my log buildings cost I figured him for a nutcase. I told him anyway. I [...]
It was not quite as seldom as I liked that I was met with what I came to call the His/Her conundrum. Some men love a log house. Some women love a log house. Sometimes they both love a log house…but not often enough for me. Needless to say, I get few calls from those [...]
Fifty years in the restoration or reproduction of period houses often offers unexpected challenges. Dr. Morley for instance, was particular about having a period style house, so particular that we drove over most of southern Ontario picking out what we agreed were the nicest, while pertinent features of mid-century stone houses. Leaving out the bric-a-brac [...]
There is a timeless truth that is as relevant today as ever. And that is tradition. To speak of tradition is to speak of an immutable principle and an application that transcends this moment by its having been a primary precedent of conscientious men. Tradition not as custom or habit, nor even as the transient [...]
I built my first green home 46 years ago. But I didn’t know it was a green home. It was a house of wood and stone mostly, and wood that had been around for a couple of hundred years or so (I never bothered to count the rings). The stone, precambrian granite…well, I think it was [...]
The true Shaker kitchen was spotless, ready for hungry workers at 5:30 a.m., and doubtless the epitome of efficiency and craftsmanship among other things. Mine is not. Quite. Yet. It’s true I took inspiration from the many aspects I have always admired about the Shaker ethic. I have always found their neat, unadorned spaces with their [...]
I just love things old. Houses, furniture, things with history, beauty, character and that patina that comes with the bestowal of nature’s slow grace. It was this love that led me, long ago, to a simple cottage in the woods that seemed to have the potential for something beautiful to be created. A clear stream meandering [...]